


The Fall

by CaptainCombatBeard



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-04-28
Packaged: 2017-11-23 08:24:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/620067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainCombatBeard/pseuds/CaptainCombatBeard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaze arrives in Sonic's world with bad news: She was almost killed by an assassin. They begin their hunt, but they do not know the scale of the events about to take place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: I Hate Politics

"You can't just let her be!"

When you hear the words "teased" and "bullied", you tend to think of school and kids.

"She's a good child, she wouldn't abuse it."

But, due to private schooling, to royalty it is different.

_"Bias!"_

The names are the same...

"You fail to see I am being honest."

But the right ones from the right person can come with sticks and stones.

"Your daughter has the temper like the fire she throws! She is not fit for royal power!"

The girl in question sat next to her father. When these trials first began, she was not anxious or worried, but as the trials progressed, and she pieced it all together, she figured out just how much this trial could effect her life.

The king was annoyed. "She's helped this whole kingdom with it, even you! Surely that has earned your trust by now?"

But now it's just routine.

"You aren't BORN a dictator, you _BECOME_ one. With time. All it would take for your daughter to become a genocidal tyrant would be some off words."

"Like the ones leaving your mouth?"

"Is that a _threat_ , my king?"

"It's the truth."

"We've been through this times before, do I have to say it again? If she gets mad at that, then she _shouldn't_ be able to inherit the throne!"

"Because she has rational feelings?"

The noble rose from his seat. " _What are you implying?_ "

The judge slammed the gavel on his well-furnished and designed desk.

"Calm down, sir." The judge ordered, laying the wooden hammer's head on the pedestal he whacked.

"She has notable, prominent anger problems, she has proved their existence in the past, and you're telling me if she kicked her flaming high heels in my eye, it would be _rational?_ " The paranoid noble exclaimed.

The king looked back at him with low, flat, and annoyed eyebrows. "In the past. She has, since, learned to control most of it. Most of her irrationalities, at least. Unlike _you._ "

**CLACK CLACK CLACK ******

"That's enough of you two." The judge complained, sensing anger spark up between the two. "Now, if the Jury has anything new to say..."

And they didn't. Six say guilty and six say innocent on a trial of twelve. A tie. At first, it was unsettling, so they replaced the jury. The second tie, which was the next court case, it was confusing. The third, the case after that, outrageous. The more it went on, the more it seemed like some cruel joke found only on political cartoons; the entire kingdom is split so evenly on a topic, they can't pull in a jury with more people in favor of either side than the other. Even the girl herself felt split.

Perhaps that's what it is, a cruel joke played by the populace. The political cartoon joke may be accurate, but there was one thing it couldn't have gotten right: It assumed that it had to end at some point, and it was just to tease the poor girl. They thought it would be over in a month. A month turned into half a year, and then into a full year. Eventually, one who would normally say guilty would say innocent, and close the case, but that is when another noble comes in, and starts the same exact thing as the last one, perhaps with fabrications about the girl ready to spew from their mouths. It all felt like one case, with different plaintiffs every couple of months.

When the anniversary of the trials beginning hit, most people stopped listening to juries. That's when it stopped being a trial by jury, but an argument between a king and a legion of nobles over a girl's right to marry, inherit the throne, stay within the royal palace, stay within the kingdom, and to live, right in front of her.

And she just sat there with a cold, blank stare.

"Another tie by the jury." The judge said, putting on tone of false amusement. He took a pen and marked a tally on an old piece of paper with hundreds of other marks across it. "Day number six of the sixteenth trial of Princess Blaze, no verdict. Two weeks from now, you three will return at the same time to this court to continue."

"Yes, your honor." The defendant and the plaintiff said in unison.

The judge nodded. "Good. It would be nice to come to some conclusion of this whole debacle after... what, _seven years?_ "

The king shook his head. "If the jury is honestly split like that, let it be..."

The judge sighed.

"This system is biased." The noble groaned on the way out.

The judge etched his fingernail onto his desk, gaining a genuine smile. "And that's the _two hundredth time_ I have heard that in my courtroom. _Congratulations._ "

The same people. The same time. Every two weeks. For two hours. For seven years. Seven and half, to be specific. Repeatedly told by old, respected nobles, that she is "too powerful" for the throne, claiming she'd kill those who pose a threat to her or get in the way of what she wants. Her father, protecting his only child took the matter into his own hands to defend his daughter's reputation. He had never expected the noble families his ancestors befriended would be so _stubborn_ about it. So stubborn, that they persisted for seven years; from the moment she, as a seven year old, had only overreacted to a simple cat joke, through the times she saved her world and her people, including those angry lords, to this current day.

And there was no end in sight, even after years of repetitive trial. The appearance of a new argument was rare. They said the same things, present the same arguments, same counterarguments, and it all looped back to the first one. "Pyromaniac." "Freak." "Pussy." And unlike any normal case of teasing and bullying, there was no "my dad can beat up your dad" or "I could beat up you" way out. Those would only prove his point. Due to law, she had to sit and listen to the paranoid and crazed men insult her every other Wednesday from the day she turned seven until now, when she was fourteen for half a year. Not because they are right, but because they had believed some day she could snap and ruin the country she worked so hard to save, and if her father were to simply decline and send them off, they would get the media and the people against them. They would rebel. So instead of shooing them away and dealing with a rebellion, the king took it in the mannered and civilized way he did.

But this wasn't law. It couldn't be. Blaze didn't see these as actual court cases, not anymore. She just saw them as anger management sessions for the royal nobles to let out all their anger at a girl, calling her a witch. She was fine with other insults, but "witch" hit her hardest, because of how they were treated in the old world.

The society did not smile upon those with special powers, especially witches. They watched with cautious eyes, since most people that did, did not use them for good deeds. They were a rare breed, and for the rare breed, they used rare punishments for their crimes to discourage the rest. These punishments were typically old fashioned. Old fashioned, as in lynching, beheading, iron maidens, roasting, and such, depending on how they used their powers. Some would call it barbaric. Although she wasn't _doomed_ if found guilty, people wouldn't be to happy if she ever used them again.

Yet, disregarding all of the hate, Blaze used her powers to protect her people from Eggman Nega, the constant, relentless and psychotic threat to the whole planet. Not just her people, but the nobles as well. And still, they wanted her hanging from a rope around her neck on her own front lawn. With nobles forming lines to harass her by trial, she swore there was some conspiracy against her.

She hated politics.

As she was walked outside, the roar of the crowds filled her ears. Whether they were shouting at her, or shouting at people with a different opinion on her, whether it is for or against her royalty status, she hated it. She wished she could just turn off her ears. She'd be fine if she didn't have to come to the court trials, but the law required her to.

In an attempt to ignore the crowd, she looked at the snipers. They were her guards from afar. From the moment her father told her she had seven teams of two watching over her every time she walked out of the court room, she spent the walks back to the armored car looking for them, spending seconds at a time. She never met any in person, and did not know which group she found. She found six total. She never quite found the last one.

But then, something shook. The something budged on the roof of the building just to the right. Blaze slowed down to see what it was. Whatever it was, it was not there now. She walked down the walkway toward the escort car a few more steps, and just as she was at the door, she looked again.

There he was. White, yellow eyes, holding a rifle, pointing it straight at her.

All the other snipers were dressed in black.

And that's when she realized she stopped moving completely.

...

Blaze glared at the assassin's only slightly faster boat from the bow of her only slightly slower battleship, and groaned.

She chased him all across the capital city to the ports, and she almost had him, but he had taken a speedboat that already had the engine started there. Sure, she was currently aboard the Ocean Tornado, which along with the Deep Typhoon was taken from Marine when Blaze returned to the mainland with the young sailor's permission (and on the grounds that they were plain dangerous in seven year old hands), and the battleship could blow the tiny boat to bits very quickly, but by the time it would take to turn the ships guns toward the boat and aim, he would already be near the edge of reasonable combat range. The range alone is enough to disqualify the flamethrower. And even then, it's too fast of a target to attempt to combat with cannons, and too small to be hit with a machine gun, from this distance at least. It wasn't much faster than this battleship, but it was enough that by the boat turned to open fire, the speedboat would have a second or two window of being vulnerable until the shooters are just guessing where the rounds will land. So all they could do was follow him until he landed somewhere, or stopped. It was fast enough to get away, but slow enough to mock Blaze further.

Which brought her to the next question: How much planning did the assassin do? Blaze saw that he had simply knocked out the sniper team stationed on the building, took the rifle, and shot at her. And _missed_. Then, taking a completely improvised route with a lot of pushing and shoving involved, he found the port, took a speed boat, and head off. Given the rest of his "plan", it probably wasn't even his. Regardless, he executed what little of an idea he had to do decently, minus the killing her part.

"Your highne-Um, Blaze..." Gardon began, correcting himself to what he remembered her preference. "We have identified the assassin."

"I already know." Blaze responded. "As much as I hate politics, I have to follow them."

Gardon understood. "Ah, yes."

To top it all off, she knew who the assassin was. A prince of a rival kingdom, which was in shambles. Because he thought the majority of his people were perfect. He was too naïve. He expected too much from his people. She almost felt sorry for the situation his nation was in, but now she didn't give a second thought. Nations other than hers were not her problem, and the attempt on her life ruined any positives the nation might have had for her. Blaze didn't know what she'd do to him when she got her hands on her. Probably return the assassination favor. Maybe she was too hateful, but she couldn't think of anything that could lead to another friend over the fact that he just tried to end her life.

"And Blaze?" Gardon asked again.

"What?" She asked.

"There is a nasty storm ahead, and he's heading right into it." Gardon explained.

"Really? With just a speed boat?" Blaze wondered. She was a bit worried she wouldn't get revenge.

Gardon nodded. "Yes. There have been cyclones spotted within it."

Blaze shook her head in disbelief. "I wouldn't think he had nothing prepared for us this whole time. Get ready for an ambush of some kind. And maybe while he's trying to get over the waves, we could plow through them and get some good shots off. Maybe."

"Yes, your majesty!" Gardon saluted, accidentally letting the "majesty" out from his lips, before turning to shout orders to the crew members. As Gardon let the term slip from his mouth, Blaze did as well. She didn't like nagging on people for the smallest things.

Looking at the boat ride into the storm, Blaze wondered quietly, as if to speak to her attacker. "What are you _doing?_ "

As the two ships dredged deeper into the storm, it got worse and worse. The waves slammed onto the sides of the boat, and winds ripped as whirlwinds formed and made the situation all the more worse. The assassin's speed boat had to have been flipped at least once, but it always landed in a proper functioning condition.

As the scene got more and more confusing, the less she cared about the thunder, rain and lightning, and the more she focused about the speedboat's miraculous landing ability. Waves that managed to reach over the hull and hit the deck of the Ocean Tornado would send the tiny speed boat straight into the air, but then it would _backflip_ , and land as if it went off a tiny ramp. It was irritating to watch. She felt her hair stand on end. Despite her dull pains, she almost managed to block out the rest of the world.

"Blaze!" Gardon tried shouting over the fierce winds, to no avail.

She squinted her eyes. It really was irritating to watch. Her eyes felt dull pains, she was feeling tense, and she felt some different presence of force amongst the now-drowned out thunder, rain and lightning. It was something more... exotic than the winds. She wondered what it was, until she widened her eyes. Then she noticed something in the corner of her eye and realized what was making her tense.

A tornado was getting within close vicinity of the ship was pulsing in a green aura.

She looked over one last time to the speed boat, to see it was turning, and in the driver's seat, she could see the assassin waving.

Before Blaze could shoot off every rude hand gesture she knew at him within seconds with privately practiced expertise (so that no press cameraman could snap a picture), the Ocean Tornado tilted the other way, into the cyclone.

It was a massive cyclone of immense force. It was so strong, not only was it pushing the boat not from the wind hitting the sails but instead the wind hitting the stern of the boat, but it was creating a whirlpool, which sent the ship going faster, and closer to the tornado. Things on the boat were being lifted now, and people were grabbing onto whatever they could. Blaze grabbed onto the railing, while Gardon, desperate and in the middle between the railings, sunk his sword into the ship's deck at an angle, all the way until at least half the blade was under the deck, and held onto the hand-guard.

Everyone was ready for the ship to start being ripped apart, inevitably sinking the ship, killing most of the crew, a miracle that involved Blaze being the lone survivor, or some tragic event that singled her out favorably, when suddenly the green aura receded. As it receded, so did all the forces of nature. The vicious cyclone seemed to stop, the ship was beginning to rebalance itself, and not a wave hit the side of the ship.

Then came the flash, and with it, unconsciousness.


	2. Why Are We Here?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story begins when Sonic gets a call from Tails, who explains something fishy is going on. Always ready for an adventure, Sonic gets to Tails to make sure nothing bad breaks out, but Sonic and Tails aren't the only ones wanting to get to the bottom of this.

Sonic walked through the Green Hill Zone, gazing around the luscious, beautiful landscape that brought fond memories, whistling the Green Hill theme.

Moments ago, the azure hedgehog received a call from Tails. Something was happening over by Emerald Coast. Tails said a storm was brewing, but not just any storm. Not only did the storm itself look pretty nasty, Tails detected some unnatural power from within it. He thought it would be best to have the number one go-to guy for rescuing, evacuating, and world saving around when trouble starts.

Sonic, having finished his nostalogic stroll through memory lane, picked up the pace, and dashed. Within minutes, he was in the city, which was beginning to look gloomy from the approaching storm, but not over-dramatically morose. At the edge of the city, it looked partly cloudy. However, it was a large city, and as Sonic raced through, it got darker, windier, and differences in the density of it all was drastic even when comparing one block to the one next to it.

When Sonic had reached the beach, he saw that GUN had managed to weave its way through the harsh storms and onto the beach, standing by in case anything bad were to happen. There was also a large metal box with a couple windows, a door that is well protected from the elements, and a large decal on the side, displaying two orange tails. It was Tails' on-site shelter for drastic conditions. It withstood the powerful winds, had deployable wheels so it could be moved around, and the entire shelter was built so that if it detects the whole shelter rotating, airbags would spring up to protect everyone inside. Sonic had seen the two tailed fox build this shelter in the spare time between adventures, and even though it was for only a few minutes, the complexity and all the things taken into account for its design amazed him.

The door swung open.

"Get inside!" Tails shouted to his best friend, holding the door open against the harsh winds. The 'porch' section, the metal walls extending two feet out to ensure the door could be opened in more situations, did little to stop the severe wind.

Sonic jogged in through the door, and Tails quickly slammed it shut.

"Hey Sonic!" Tails greeted. "Glad you could make it. I'm sure you saw how bad this is."

"Sorry I took so long, I was running from someone." He apologized.

"Who?" Tails asked.

"You know very well who." Sonic said.

Tails took his mind off that and began to focus on the topic at hand."Okay, for the most part, the storm has stopped moving, it's just staying in the same place. It's slowly gaining more energy, though, so sit tight." Tails explained.

Sonic nodded. No need for words.

They watched the storm. Tails usually watched his laptop monitor which was displaying a heat map of emerald coast, measuring the intensity of the energy in specific areas, while Sonic eyed the storm through the thick glass. Sometimes Sonic would look at the monitor, trying to make sense of it, while Tails would peek at the hurricane itself.

Sonic walked over to the monitor, leaned on the counter top, and examined the heat map. He saw that most of the storm was green, while the middle was yellow, and the dead center orange. He could see the blobs of color slowly expanding through the top of the computer window.

"This is abnormal power?" Sonic asked, bored and hardly interested. "Stuff that normally isn't there?"

"Yes, it is." Tails explained over his shoulder.

"And, how does this heat map thing work? Satellite?"

"Sensors. I planted two when I got here, and I gave two to the GUN forces to plant as far as they wanted, as I had to set up shop with this shelter. It's live, and the program I'm using focuses on the center, so if they brought it up more, it would expand upward."

Sonic then noticed a scroll bar to the side. Apparently, Tails was only looking at half of what was going on. GUN managed to bring the sensors closer to the sea. Useful for once, at least to Sonic and Tails. Normally, they jailed or shot at him for just passing by. Perhaps it was the way he passed by. Curious, Sonic grabbed the bar and brought it upward to view the newly scanned areas.

At the very top of the screen, he saw a hotspot of energy. Coming from the spot were a stream of green dots.

"Umm..." Sonic dragged on, stopping himself from panicking. He dragged the bar back down to look at the storm itself on the heat map again. It was expanding as it was before.

Sonic scrolled back up.

The hotspot of energy was suddenly launched toward the storm. Sonic followed it as it turned whatever spot it touched one tier up; blue turned to green, green turned to yellow, the yellow into orange, and orange into red. When the hotspot had stopped inside the red, the red had turned into a blinking strobe, signaling that it was an incredible amount of power.

Sonic stared at the screen with his jaw dropped in shock. He had only a clue of how the heat map worked and the scale of the energy at work, but believed he understood what he just saw. "... Son of a-"

"Sonic! Come look!" Tails shouted.

Sonic quickly stood up and ran over to the window. Glistening green particles rose from the sea and into the clouds. And, as the green particles were absorbed into the cloud, turning it green, a tornado began to form, with green lines coursing through it.

"UH OH." Sonic said.

The tornado began to form a large light green light from the center, as the intensity of the brightness in the lines grew

"UH OOOOOOOH!" Sonic boomed.

Suddenly, the light receded, for a moment. And throughout that moment, Sonic wondered what those green specs of energy were, and what they were meant to do.

But then came the flash.

The flash blinded them for a split second. It did not leave their vision impaired for the moment after, or anything. Just a very bright flash. It seemed alien to Tails, but Sonic thought he had a slightest clue. As soon as the flash ended and he could see again, Sonic, curious as to what the monitor looked like, quickly glanced over at the monitor for a short moment. He saw a huge sea of green-level energy dispersing over the entire area.

Looking back to the window, the tornado had disappeared, and in its place thankfully was not a giant monster like he had feared. It was a ship. A large ship, with water-wheels and appeared to be an umbrella. On the side were several canons, and on the side of the ship were a heavy caliber machine gun and an odd looking ranged weapon with the tip burnt black.

The brotherly friends stared as it fell into the ocean, causing the water to splash high above the deck. With the abnormal energy leaving the area also left the natural energy. The winds died down and the rain stopped, but the clouds were still overhead, as grim as ever. Both of them were confused, but on different topics.

"How did that ship get there? It looks awfully familiar."

Sonic was opening the door to the structure. "Because you built it."

* * *

Sonic and Tails shipped off on a small rowboat. The tides of Emerald Coast have calmed, but the sky was still cloudy.

"The green lights didn't look familiar to you?" Sonic asked his friend.

Tails was feeling a bit shameful that he didn't remember them. "No, not at the time..."

"We flew right into one of them, almost got us killed, and you don't remember it?" Sonic went on, grabbing a grappling hook. They were given the grappling hook to board the ship by GUN. When they reached the ship's side, Tails stopped the boat. Sonic quickly flung the grappling hook around for a moment, savoring the adventurer feel he had while twirling it around, and tossed it up. He almost missed, but it landed on the ship, and took hold of the railing.

"Up we go," Sonic instructed as he began to climb the rope. "Can't keep them waiting."

As the two neared the top, Sonic couldn't resist a joke.

"Thank you for flying BoatAir, the first ever boat-based commercial airliner service since Skies of Arcadia!" Sonic said aloud, trying to put on a generic, friendly-sounding voice that such an airliner would use, holding back the laugh. "Please wait for your attendants to assist you!"

Tails laughed. This laugh devolved into a chuckle while Sonic climbed to the top and tossed his leg over the railing. "Alright, _Vyse_ , that's enough."

Sonic looked around the boat. It was definitely the boat he thought it was; Ocean Tornado. _Tornado,_ Sonic thought as he finished confirming it was the ship he had in mind. _Tornadoes come from tornadoes._ Tails recognized the ship now. He didn't feel the need to say anything, however.

On the deck immediately in front of them were koalas, groaning and moaning across the floor, holding their heads and injured areas. None of it looked too serious. Mostly just unconsciousness and bruises. It was a different crew. They all had uniforms similar to Gardon's. No sign of Marine, but she would be in the Captain's Quarters.

"Tails, check Captain Quarters and below the deck." Sonic ordered. "I'll look around topside."

"Alright!" Tails accepted, turning around to go check. He stopped suddenly, as he turned around slowly and said "Or should I say "aye"?"

"Whatever you want." Sonic replied, starting to walking away, shaking his hand in a "shoo" fashion. "Just don't talk like a _scurveh sea dog_."

Sonic looked at the people on the deck, looking specifically for the person in the least pain. He saw a koala laying next to the stairway next to the entrance to the inner parts of the ship. Sonic walked over to the sailor.

"What'd ya bang?" Sonic asked.

"Nothing much, just a hip and an elbow." He said, plainly. He didn't talk like a sailor, although he did seem a bit grouchy at the moment.

Sonic offered his hand. "Well get up, and get everyone else on their feet. I've got important things to get to."

"Alright, gimmie a moment..." The koala groaned, arching his back. After a couple audible pops, and a satisfied "yeaaah," the sailor grabbed Sonic's arm and pulled himself up. After promptly dusting himself off, the sailor walked over to an unconscious one.

Sonic walked over to the bow. There, he saw the lavender cat from another dimension which he met only three or so before, Blaze. She seemed to just be removing the fear of the ship overturning from her head. Next to her was Gardon, her bodyguard. He was sitting on the deck, leaning against the railing, groaning, his sword stuck into the wood and most of his left side limp.

"Rise and shine, puddy tat." Sonic joked standing his dimensional counterpart.

"Sonic...?" Blaze said, opening one of her eyes to see if she was right. "Oh, it's nice to see you again but... great. I'm in your world. _Fantastic_."

"Yes, Blaze and us were just having a chase with an assassin, a prince of a rivaling kingdom, who managed to improvise his whole escape route from the heart of the capitol to the ports and made his way out on a slightly faster boat than this one." Gardon explained. "Almost had him too, but when he went into a storm, a tornado formed, and began to drag us into it. Before we knew it, a portal opened in the center, and we couldn't escape."

Sonic's eyebrows rose from the word 'assassin'. "Woah. At least you dodged the assassin, could have been terrible if he knew what he was doing."

"But we almost had him!" Blaze complained. "Just needed some more speed, is all..."

"Whatever, the deal is, you're in my world. Before you entered, me and Tails saw a green stuff fly into a tornado, making a green light." Sonic explained. "I remembered seeing it the same green lights when I entered your world the first time. Probably the Eggmen at work again." Sonic stuck out his hand. "So, time to get to work, I guess."

Blaze groaned. She knew he was right, and she hated how she was pulled out of one problem into another. She also didn't know why Sonic got right down to the business. Normally, she was the serious one, and he was wanting to just hang out. He also didn't much surprised that she was there. Weird, but whatever. With a sigh, she grabbed his hand, and hoisted herself onto her feet.

Sonic turned to see that Tails had come out of the ship by now, and was making his way over to the them.

"Hey, Blaze! It's been a while!" Tails greeted. "Is Marine on board? I didn't find her."

"No, she isn't. The kingdom had relieved the Ocean Tornado and the Deep Typhoon, on the grounds that it is crazy to just leave them in adventuring seven year old hands." Blaze explained. "She still has the Wave Cyclone and Aqua Blast, although we took the charge laser from the latter."

"Oh." Tails said, beginning to chuckle. "Well, I wouldn't blame you."

Blaze nodded. "Yes, yes. Taking this ship was a great choice, seeing as I was almost assassinated today."

Tails' face lit up. "Do you know who did it?"

The cat was slightly annoyed from repeating her day's endeavors. "Prince of a rival nation. Just walked in, tried his hand at my life, and improvised his way through the capitol and made it out on a _slightly_ faster boat. It doesn't matter now, he didn't fall through the portal I did."

"Alright." Tails shrugged. "Should we be going, or...?"

"Yes, please." Blaze answered. "The more I stay on this boat, the more I'm reminded of how many times he threw garbage at me. And he has a way of throwing garbage-"

Gardon somehow grew a sense of humor and beat Sonic to cutting her off. "Now, I'd love to keep talking about trash, but we have eggs to crack."

* * *

As the four paddled back onto shore, Sonic and Tails saw a familiar face, waiting for them. A black hedgehog, with red stripes running along bent quills. As they landed, Blaze was trying to match a description of one of the many people Sonic's met in the stories Sonic and Tails shared during their spare time on Southern Island, when Sonic called out to him.

"Hey Shadow, what are you doing here?" The blue hedgehog asked.

"They have sixty four GUN operators here, and you think _I_ wouldn't be one of them?" The black one responded.

"I'd make a joke about operators operating operations," Sonic rambled. "but seriously, why are you here? Didn't Tails here inform the officer here that I would be coming along? Isn't the major world-saving duo enough to handle things for them?"

"Apparently not. Especially now, since you and _her_ tore through one of the GUN battleships back during the first dimensional conundrum." Shadow stated. He glanced at Blaze before speaking again. "So you're the catgirl Sonic talked about? Blaze?"

Blaze took a moment to answer. "Yes...?"

"Oh, don't worry, he talks about _everyone_." Shadow said. "He's his own news reporter."

"...Okay?" She replied. She didn't see why he needed to say that.

"Just saying."

Tails got back in the conversation. "Did GUN detect anything out there?"

Shadow shook his head. "No, the waters were too violent to send anything in it, we only moved the sensors up. Why?"

"I caught a little glimpse of what was causing it on the heat map." Sonic explained.

Tails grinned. "I had recorded what happened on it, maybe we can go back and review it, and try to get a precise answer as to what it was?"

"Good idea, Tails." Sonic said. He began to walk past Shadow. "Smell ya later, Shadow!"

As Sonic began to walk away, Blaze, Tails, and Gardon followed. While Gardon was passing, he stopped, looked at Shadow, shook the sheathed sword on his hip by the hilt, and left.

Shadow was left there to wonder.

"... " _Smell ya later_ "? What am I, some cartoon rival?" Shadow complained to himself. "...And wouldn't _I_ be the protagonist if he said it? Whatever, I have important things to do, like..."

Shadow then realized his agency currently had no clue what had happened, and yet Sonic and Tails did. As a matter of fact, they had a recording of their evidence, and due to each others' rivalry, they probably won't share it. While those four were leading the way to find out what happened, the multi-billion dollar GUN organization was like a headless chicken. This just couldn't happen.

But Shadow had people. Most importantly, he led a very skilled group of agents, one of them being a spy. If anyone could get information for GUN, it would definitely be Rouge. She liked to be paid in gems, however. Very valuable gems. He figured she would steal her pay from them. It's convenient when she steals a Chaos Emerald, but with another set of emeralds she's never seen before, Rouge will probably take the new ones and then completely antagonize the GUN name to an entire other dimension, who may be equally or better equipped than them.

He activated his radio to get permission to execute his plan from his superiors, but as he was talking, he wondered what could go wrong.

"They have info on what happened, but they didn't invite us..." Shadow stated. "And I doubt they will."

A lot, he knew. He knew a lot could go wrong if he did this, and put much more into trouble.

"Hmm." Grunted the GUN Commander. "Well, do you have any ideas to counter that?"

Then there's a lot more chances to show that arrogant blue prick who is the better hog.

"Well, have this idea..."

* * *

The trip was not completed without interference. News crews gathered around the exit of the beach as the storm ceased, and Sonic had to briefly explain the situation to the public.

"Sonic! Sonic! Did you find out how the storm had been created along the shoreline?"

"Yes, and according to these readings, it says that that _you should BUG OFF!_ "

News of the otherworldly princess' third appearance in this world spread quickly. The fact that she had parked a battleship with a full crew of koalas a dozen yards off the shore of a public beach in her entrance helped it get around.

Luckily, once they got a few blocks from the beach, they weren't held up by hordes of people in their way. The group of four -Sonic, Tails, Blaze, and Gardon, who insisted on coming along to guard her highness- quickly made it back to Tails' workshop at the edge of the city.

"Well, here we are." Tails said enthusiastically. "My workshop."

"Quite a collection of inventions you have..." Gardon complimented.

Tails chuckled. "Aw, shucks."

"Is it always like that here?" Blaze asked. "With all the people?"

Sonic answered quickly. "When something happens in town, people usually want to know what's going on as soon as possible. Don't worry, we won't be followed around by everyone and their mother for now."

"Really?" Blaze wondered.

"Well I hope not." He replied with a chuckle. "Civilians definitely won't. Rule number one of being a world-saving hero: You're a trouble magnet. I'm sure you know that by now. Anyway, let's look at that recording."

Tails stroked his chin. "You're not usually the one that wants to get down to business..."

Sonic shrugged. "Eh, I just want to know who we're dealing with, and what they're packing first. I can decide when the best time to lollygag would be later."

"Fair enough," Tails replied, turning on the computer. It to take a few moments to boot up.

While the computer was in the long process of turning on, there was a knock at the door. Sonic turned around and volunteered to answer it. "I got it, I got it." But as Sonic opened the door, he felt like he made the wrong choice.

"Sonic!" Cried the pink hedgehog on the other side. Sonic was ready to jump back from a nigh-inevitable glomp from his number one fan, Amy Rose. But strangely, it didn't come. Not _immediately_ , anyway. "Me and Cream saw the news, and we were thinking, could me and Cream stay for a while?"

"Please?" Cream asked. Cream was Blaze's first friend here, and, for all Sonic knows, one of her first ever.

Sonic smiled. "Come on in. Don't forget, though, she's here for a reason, and it's not to just hang out. Something fishy is up."

"Thanks, Mister Sonic!" Cream thanked politely as she ran into the workshop. "Blaze!"

The cat blinked, and only got a glimpse of her before she wrapped her arms around her. "It's been a while, Cream!" Inspired by their hug, Amy made her move. Anticipating the inevitable, Sonic sidestepped away from Amy's attempt at a hug, letting out a light "Aha!" as the pink hedgehog swung her arms through air. "How have you been doing?"

"I'm doing fine, Blaze. I'm staying out of trouble while Sonic and Tails deal with Eggman." Cream explained.

"Every time." Sonic added, walking over to the two girls.

"Well, how about you?" Cream asked. "How are you doing?"

Blaze got a nervous look on her face. "Um... not that good. I'm here because there is something troublesome happening, somewhere, okay?"

"Oh. I hope it gets cleared up without too much fuss..."

"Don't we all?" Tails stated. "Anyway, the computer is running and the recording file is ready."

"Recording file?" Amy asked.

Sonic crossed his arms and began to explain. "We picked up some funky stuff on sensors we set up around the beach before the ship fell. We're looking to see if there's something we can point at and say "Yeah, that's Eggman", or if it's something else."

"Oh, alright. Well, at least you're prepared for it this time."

They began to huddle around the computer monitor.

* * *

"How's it look?" The bat asked.

"These binoculars aren't good enough," The black hedgehog groaned to his companion. "Their huge heads are getting in my way, and even then, this thing's not powerful enough to read how they're measuring the power."

Shadow and Rouge were sitting in a tree, looking through a window with binoculars, trying to piece together information they saw on the computer screen from above. Rouge, being part of the trio Shadow was in, was told asked to come along on his little reconnaissance mission. Down below, the third was overhearing technical problems.

"PERHAPS I CAN BE OF ASSISTANCE?" Omega inquired. His vision was designed to zoom, tune, focus, go into night vision, and use both white-hot and black-hot thermals if necessary.

Shadow found the fact that the branch wasn't the most sturdy a bit unsettling. "Not to insult, but you're not particularly a stealth robot. And this branch is already bending, I don't think it could stand a seven-hundred pound killing machine."

"TOUCHE." Omega responded.

"Hey, how about I get a look at it up close?" Rouge asked.

Shadow rose an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Rouge explained her intentions. "Blaze hasn't had a hostile impression on me yet. Plus, me and her went to Sonic's birthday party. She should trust me, and I probably won't even have to lie to them, so long as she doesn't punch me right out."

"Yes, but I'm sure he's told her about you, what with your fondness of emeralds and gems of all kinds. This Blaze girl has her own set of them, you know. Sol Emeralds?"

"And she has a gem on her forehead."

In a silence, Shadow took a moment to look through the binoculars at Blaze, locating at the red spot on her forehead.

"What?" Rouge asked.

Shadow chuckled. "I guess "blind as a bat" doesn't apply to you."

"Hah," Rouge laughed dryly. "Anyway, Sonic has taught her to open up a bit more, and try to make friends with people, if his word is something to trust. If that doesn't work, I'll draw them all out so you two can move in."

Shadow thought it over for a moment. "Oh, sure. It's better than looking at colored spots all day."

Rouge began to flap her wings to float down to the ground. "You two stay here, wait for me to come back out before trying anything."

"Alright," Shadow nodded.

"AFFIRMATIVE." Omega complied.

Shadow opened his mouth one last time. "And about that birthday party-"

"Knuckles specifically told me _not to bring you_. He knew a fight would break out."

As the hedgehog grumbled, the gentle gem-rogue landed gently on the ground, and walked around the corner of the workshop. Shadow returned to observing through binoculars.

* * *

"You see that massive hot-spot right here?" Sonic said, pointing to the same hotspot he was looking at earlier. "It looks like it was some dispenser for it."

Tails shook his head. "Yeah, I should have checked to see if they moved the sensors up. I should make some notification that the scanning area's dimensions changed..."

_Knock knock knock_

"More visitors?" Sonic asked. "Tails, why didn't you tell me we were having a party?"

"I'll get it this time," Blaze said, standing up and making her way to the door. "You two know more about how that works than I do."

"I only have the slightest idea..." Sonic admitted in a mumbling voice. He couldn't recognize the energy measurement Tails was measuring this energy in. He could tell it wasn't radioactive, thankfully.

Blaze opened the door, and felt the same thing Sonic had felt. Like it was a bad choice.

"Oh, hey." Said the well-endowed bat on the other side of the door. "I heard the commotion. You must be Blaze?"

Blaze remembered her from Sonic's birthday party a while back. They didn't talk, but Blaze certainly did not want to talk to her. Sonic never went into detail on her in his stories while he was staying on Southern Island back in her dimension, but taking a good look at her, she's not the kind of woman a man would remember. "... Yes."

"Well, we've met before, haven't we? I'm Rouge. I was sent here by GUN," Rouge started to look over Blaze's shoulder toward the group huddling around the computer. "... to ask if we could get a look at what your friends had picked up at Emerald Coast today."

Sonic and Tails exchanged looks. They knew her well, but if she tried anything, she certainly wouldn't get away with it. Not against five or six people. After a moment, Sonic nodded. "Sure, just don't touch anything."

"Yes, there are dangerous things here, Ms. Rouge." Cream told her.

"Yeah, dangerous as in knock your head clean off." Sonic jokingly added, walking over to the table and spinning what at first appeared to be and industrial fan, but was actually a surplus propeller for an airplane, modified so it can be activated by hand in the back.

" _Sonic!_ " Amy shouted, concerned, as Cream was a few feet away from him.

"Okay, sorry." Sonic apologized.

Rouge looked back at the cat. Blaze was looking at her with a paranoid glare, but with a "hmph", she turned away and walked back into the shop.

"Not so sunshine and rainbows, huh?" Rouge joked. "Oh, I know a guy you'd _love_ to meet."

"Shadow, right? Not interested." Blaze answered plainly, swatting the thought out of the air like an airplane hitting a bird.

Rouge rose her eyebrows. "Oh, so do you just not swing that-"

" _NOT INTERESTED_." She growled again, smacking the topic out of the sky like King Kong hitting the aforementioned airplane. Rouge noticed wispy steam escape through the gaps of her teeth. "You came for information, get it."

"Calm down, Blaze." Sonic told Blaze. "Yeesh."

"Fine, fine..." Rouge sighed. She probably blew any chance of respect from Blaze. Rouge usually had good, knowledgeable documents to study their personalities before trying to use her charisma to get the better of someone, but due to her stoic personality, and no GUN personnel having encountered her during her only adventure in this realm, she had to wing it with what Sonic said about her. Winging it usually worked, but this Blaze girl seemed to be hateful and paranoid toward her, despite Sonic saying she's "opened up a bit". Rouge couldn't blame her, really. And, looking at the current objective of getting everyone out of the workshop so Shadow and Omega could enter, it was probably good if Blaze and her got into a fight. But make it natural, not like she wants them all to leave.

Rouge made her way over to the computer and looked over the shoulder of the two tailed fox sitting in the chair. She couldn't make anything out on the spot other than _that's a lot of energy_.

"What is this measured in? What kind of energy, how much...?"

"That's the thing that I find weird. The sensors we had at the beach could pick up several types of energy, including Chaos energy. This here is the Chaos energy sensor feed. But, we have complete sets of both the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds."

Rouge was not into technology stuff, and she hardly cared about the energetic properties of the Chaos Emeralds. She loved the visual properties, though. Their gleam was delightful, and much brighter than other emeralds that size, shape, and color. She could always tell a genuine from a fake. Perhaps the energy does have something to do with her love for them. As a result of her uncaring of the topic at hand, her gaze was wandering around the shop. Sonic was right; some of the stuff could take someone's head clean off. It hardly crossed her mind that this workshop belonged to an eight year old boy. It was then she spotted a bag. A black silk bag, that was slightly open, and through the gap she saw a glimmer. Mesmerized, Rouge was being drawn toward it.

"Hmm... There isn't any other gems I would know that have similar properties as the Sol Emeralds, other than the Royal Emerald, but that's been locked in a vault located in the castle for years now." Blaze pondered.

"Royal Emerald? You never told us about that." Sonic stated.

"I haven't? Oh." Blaze began to explain. "It's said to have powers, due to its size, but it's ceremonial, so it shouldn't..."

She noticed the bat girl looking with awe into the bag of Sol Emeralds.

" _HEY!_ " Blaze shouted sharply, pushing her way over to her, snatched the bag from her hands, and glanced in it to check if she stole a few. "What do you _think you're doing!_ "

Rouge laughed nervously. She honestly did get carried away. "Ahaha, sorry, I got... tempted. What are those? They look fabulous."

Rouge noticed Blaze was becoming more and more passive-aggressive each time she finished a sentence. "Sol Emeralds. Precious artifacts. More valuable than your life."

"Woah, hey..." Sonic said, trying to ease the two.

"Blaze..." Cream whimpered.

Blaze looked back at Cream, and then back at Rouge. With a snort of a bull, Blaze turned away from Rouge.

"Rouge, leave." Sonic ordered. "Now."

"But I haven't gotten any pictures ye-"

"Just leave!" Sonic shouted. "You and GUN are in our business. You should know hanging with the heroes only gets you in trouble. Get out. And tell GUN the only thing they're good for is diabolical trucks that destroy cities."

Feeling slightly insulted, Rouge turned away, returning the unfriendly glare to Blaze as she made to the door.

"Cream, I'm sorry," Blaze began. "I knew she was trouble when I opened the door..." Slightly worried, Blaze opened the bag, and began to examine her emeralds. "... Three, four, five..."

A bell rung as Rouge opened the door and hit the visitor bell above the doorway and made her way out.

"... _six_..." Blaze's eyes widened as she opened the bag wider. "... OH THAT THIEVING LITTLE..."

Without another word, Blaze tossed the Sol Emeralds to Gardon, and charged out the door, swinging it open, and charged through. "GIVE ME MY EMERALD BACK YOU STEALING _TRAMP!_ "

Realizing the situation, Gardon handed the bag of emeralds to Sonic. Sonic was the fastest thing alive, so if anyone had a chance to catching up with a clever spy as Rouge, it'd be him, and he wanted to keep it like that and not having to haul around six gems. He looked around impatiently for a place to put them, and tossed them beside the computer as Gardon turned his back on him. With that, Gardon tore his sword from the sheath, and let out a warcry.

"FOR HER MAJESTY!" He shouted as he slammed open the door, and charged out.

"I don't think _majestic_ is the word..." Sonic chuckled quietly enough so Gardon wouldn't hear, holding the door open for Tails, Amy, and Cream. Once the last one was out, Sonic shut the door, and bolted after Rouge. Tails was to follow, with Amy and Cream trying to catch up. 


	3. Oh Boy, Here We Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rouge, fallen for the allure of Blaze's emeralds, has taken a single Sol Emerald and ran off, bringing all but Shadow and Omega with her. Shadow and Omega take the chance to get info on what happened at the beach, but there are complications...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update. I have a lot of ideas and I want to put them all on paper, but at the same time I don't want to abandon this. While trying to figure out how to break this massive delay up a little, I realized "wait a minute I have all these chapters I had saved from before I started uploading". So here you go. More will come, but probably not soon.

“They're gone.” Shadow whispered.

“THEN LET US COMMENCE THE RETRIEVAL OF THE INFORMATION.” Omega boomed a response.

“Quiet, quiet!” Shadow ordered in a hushed voice. “There might be someone in there, still... Just turn off your mouth!”

Shadow looked around the corner, and looked toward the woods Rouge chose to run into. He could see Amy and Cream, only slightly, who in a moment will bound over a fallen tree in the woods. Other than that, no one else seemed around. No civilians, no other GUN agents, no colorful furry superheroes... no one.

Shadow smiled. “Alright, clear on the outside, not a soul in sight. Let's go in.”

Shadow turned the corner, Omega following as he got to the door. He leaned against the door, and began to gently twist the knob. Unlocked. Good. He readjusted himself, and twisted the knob fully to open the door. Shadow managed to keep leaning on the door as it swung open and hit the wall. Inside the workshop was as devoid of life as the landscape around it. He chuckled a bit as he walked in the shop, and began examining the bits of contraptions and the things they belonged to that were scattered around the shop. “Alright, completely clear. They even left the computer on in a hurry, I can see.”

“I SHALL COPY THE FILE AND SEND IT TO GUN HQ.” Omega blurted as he barely managed to fit in the doorway. Leaving the door open, he began to make his way over to the computer as Shadow observed the contraptions. He couldn't tell what half of them were at first. But, with further inspection, he could see what they were meant to do. He took a moment to admire the crazy looking machinery that the eight year old had built. Shadow didn't really pay attention to the genius of the fox, but this trip into his lab gave him a great look at just how smart he was.

Shadow was about to give up looking around, and observe the recording himself, to see if he could make sense of it, when he saw a black bag. He saw that Rouge had looked into it, with interest. With some curiosity, put a finger on the mouth of the bag, and looked inside.

Gems. Large, precious looking gems. He recognized them as the Sol Emeralds, from a very vague description Sonic gave during his newspaper report of the first dimensional conundrum. “They're counterparts of the Chaos Emeralds,” quote Sonic from the paper. “They're rectangular, and, although not proven, probably have similar abilities, powers, and weaknesses, as they were drained of color, much like how the Chaos Emeralds were during the _Chaos Incident_. There are also seven in the set.” To Shadow's not-so-shocking surprise, there were six. Shadow didn't even notice Rouge take one from the bag, even though his eyes were trained on her. _That bat had the hand of a master thief,_ the black hedgehog thought to himself.

He felt satisfaction with his comrade being able to sneak out a highly sacred item from its guardian within ten feet, but at the same time, he felt disappointment. They were here for information, not Sol Emeralds. Blaze needs those, anyhow. Looking around, he felt that the emeralds were in a very obvious spot, if Rouge were to return to the workshop after having slipped behind her pursuers. Shadow felt he needed to keep them away from Rouge, as she would take them all if she was left alone with them, regardless of their purpose. And the only person that can use the emeralds not having them would only make the situation worse.

He had to hide it from Rouge.

So, he grabbed the bag and turned around, looking for a spot she wouldn't see while walking in. He eyed a drawer, and briefly wondered if Rouge could feel the power of the emeralds. Or if he could. After confirming he didn't feel a lick of energy from the Sol Emeralds in the bag, and that this Blaze girl probably did, he opened the drawer and stuffed the bag in, making sure none of the fine fabric was sticking out of the cracks as he shut it.

Feeling somewhat better about himself, he took a breath in and looked across the table.

There was a floating steel chair roughly three feet away from him.

_**WHANG**_

* * *

 Sonic raced through the forest, trying to find the bat and the cat. The path was simple: follow the scorch marks and the faint sound of insults and curse words in the distance. Sonic decided could hear what words were being shouted, then he had to be really hot on their trail. While running along the trail, he noticed smoldering bits of machinery on the ground.

“Really?” Sonic said to himself as he passed the remains of the military droids. “GUN gave Rouge robots for backup? _Really?!_ ”

As Sonic ran up a tree, following the burnt black trail Blaze left on it, untouched GUN robot looked at Sonic.

“TARGET SPOTTED, COMMENCING FI-”

Before it could finish, Sonic went straight through the robot, punching a nice hole in it, and continued.

“What does GUN want with those things, anyway? And why do the robots have to say everything they're about to do. They're worse than Eggman when it comes to that, and that's saying something!”

As Sonic went on, he felt something against his ankle. He hardly felt it as it broke against his leg, but enough to have a clue what it was.

Down the path, down fell a dark black ball. An old fashioned bomb, he figured as he got closer. It had to be at least fifty feet ahead of him, but at the speed Sonic was moving, it may as well have been two feet. He was running too fast to slow down enough, so he had to run faster. As he got to it, he jumped and rolled into a ball as it exploded. There was a small shockwave that made him stumble a little as he landed, but nothing that could put him on the ground. He was fine, and annoyed that Rouge was still Rouge.

Sonic slowed down to a halt, and looked back, wondering if he had dodged other traps that Tails or Amy wouldn't notice either. He was thinking of going back, when he heard another explosion the direction he was headed.

_You know, Tails is pretty good for a kid his age,_ Sonic thought. _He should be able to get Amy and Cream to avoid a few traps._ With the justification in mind, Sonic raced ahead. _Besides, Amy's got a hammer. It'll be polo for her._

* * *

 The huge red and gold hammer slammed into the bomb, sending it aside and to a safe distance when it exploded.

Amy sighed with relief, and wiped some sweat from her brow. “Whew! That was close!”

“Yeah, nice job, Amy.” Tails complimented while helping Cream to a stand after tripping on the wire.

“Yes, very impressive.” Gardon nodded, slowing down from a run to a jog to thank her.

She smiled for a moment. The moment of glory felt good. “Thanks...”

* * *

 As Sonic got closer and closer to the treeline, he began to move quietly and observe what was going on from the forest.

Blaze was finishing up a batch of GUN robots before Rouge began to talk. “Ooh, not bad.”

“Shut your mouth and give me my Sol Emerald!” Blaze shouted. “I've got better things to do than argue with a dime a dozen thief, so return it!”

Rouge laughed. “You've got no idea what you're messing with, girl.”

“And you have no idea what you're messing with! Give it back!” As Blaze talked, sparks of fire flew from between her teeth.

Noticing this, Rouge covered her smile. “Hmph, for a princess you sure are feisty.”

With that, Blaze ran at Rouge, her feet slowly being engulfed in flame. Rouge, accepting the challenge, ran toward her, and as she saw Blaze start up a kick, she jumped and flew over the burning cat sending a spiraling kick to where the bat once was. While the cat was slowing down, Rouge began to fly after Blaze, ready with a kick of her own.

As Blaze regained her footing, she saw the incoming attack. She jumped back, narrowly dodging the powerful kick, and sending another flaming kick toward the bat. This attack connected just as Rouge realized it was coming. Rouge took the kick to the shoulder and got knocked back five feet, flapping her wings to make sure she landed on her feet.

She touched the spot where it connected, to find that it stung to put her hand directly on her skin there. It was scorched. A nasty side effect. The smile disappearing from her face as she winced from the burn, Rouge glared at her enemy. “Not bad, missy...”

Blaze slowly strafed around Rouge, her expression unchanging.

“Not bad at all...” Rouge went on, shaking off the pain in the arm that was hit. She began bouncing around, ready to get back on the offensive. “But you're gonna have to do better than little burns and scorches like _that_.”

Before Blaze could respond, Rouge ran right at her. She was halfway ready to send a kick straight at the bat, when Rouge slid along the ground. Annoyed by the change of movement, Blaze bent her leg, ready to stomp on Rouge with her high heels if she got close.

But on the ground, Rouge twisted over and pushed herself into the air. This sudden change caught the cat off guard, and the powerful kick got her in the jaw. Blaze stumbled back, almost falling to the ground. Rouge kicked much harder than she did.

As she was addressing the hit, Blaze looked behind her and sent her foot toward the ground behind her, sending fire across the ground. Rouge was about to follow up with another kick, but the flames forced her to jump back to avoid more burns. Now that she had her time to talk, Blaze responded to Rouge's suggestion.

“ _Is that a suggestion?_ ” She grumbled, moving her jaw around and turning to face Rouge again.

The two girls strafed around each other, impatient for the other to attack. Blaze began closing in, and Rouge backed up in response. Thinking she has the mental upper hand, Blaze ran up to Rouge. Expecting a kick, Rouge braced to block, hoping only to receive a minor burn, however expecting to be knocked back.

Just before the supposedly inevitable kick, though, Blaze stopped in her tracks, and sent her hand forward. From it, fire flew out and covered Rouge's torso. Rouge, surprised, instinctively jumped back and flapped her wings, sending the fire at her. Rouge was hoping that Blaze herself wasn't fireproof.

Blaze was fireproof, but she was blinded by fire covering her face. It disappointed quickly, when her face was unveiled, she was smiling, watching Rouge shake her singed face and arms to put out fires that weren't there. When Rouge was done, she glared at the pyrokinetic cat, what little playfulness she had gone.

_She doesn't fight fair._ Rouge noted to herself as she looked at the cat with her little Cheshire smile. She hatched an idea. _Well, neither do I._

From behind her, Rouge pulled out something.

“A BOMB!” Sonic blurted out, attracting the attention of both the fighters and Tails, Amy, Cream and Gardon, who just got within earshot.

Instead of what she originally planned, Rouge's agitation took over, and she threw the bomb over her head at Sonic.

Sonic's joyful false-concern turned into hidden anger as the bomb flew toward him. “Oh. Okay.” Sonic said plainly as the bomb was en route.

While the bomb was heading toward Sonic, Rouge turned and got a stern kick into Blaze's gut. Blaze wasn't knocked back by this kick, so she sent a hand to Rouge's side, using the same burning technique as before. In pain, Rouge stepped back. Blaze was jogging backward, looking at Sonic with her mouth hanging loose with a smile. This rose the question of what caught Blaze's attention. Rouge looked over to Sonic, and saw Sonic. With the bomb above his head.

His mood ruined, Sonic said “I see how it is.”

Sonic threw the bomb at Rouge, running out from the treeline as he threw it and into the fight. Because the bomb was returned with such delay, the bomb exploded right in front of Rouge, causing her to stagger backward. She hadn't the time to collect herself before Sonic came spinning into her, sending her skidding to the other side of the clearing.

“You were watching the whole time?” Blaze asked quickly.

“Yup!” Sonic answered, standing up from ball form.

Blaze was a bit frustrated. “Why didn't you join in earlier? I thought you didn't like it when people do that.”

Sonic nodded. “Yeah, you're right. But remember when I fought the Time Eater? With all due respect, all _you_ did was just sit on the sidelines and say “THAT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SHOT” along with the rest of them.”

Blaze looked down at the ground, chuckling. “Point taken.”

Tails, Amy, Cream and Gardon had reached the treeline at that point. Gardon, who was not particularly fast, was tired from trying to keep up. On a normal basis, Gardon would have ran at Rouge with his sword drawn, screaming something along the lines of “For the Queen and Country”, but he was breathing so heavily he couldn't talk. Besides, it looked like the bat woman was handled by now. Amy, Tails, and Cream being the faster ones, saw Sonic's stunt with the bomb.

“Woo! Nice one Sonic!” Amy cheered, with all the enthusiasm as expected.

Tails decided to point something out. “Sonic, Blaze, she dropped the Sol Emerald!”

Rouge had noticed this at the same time Tails did. On the ground and covered in soot, the bat scrambled for the gem, but Blaze was faster, and got to the purple Sol Emerald first. As she was picking it up, She spun around on one of her feet and kicked Rouge in the face as she almost got to the Sol Emerald. Rouge fell onto her back, and began to back away on the ground. Amy and Tails emerged from the treeline, Cream staying back for her protection, and Gardon only just paying attention to the situation.

Rouge growled, getting up off the ground and into a crouch. “This could have been a fair fight, if Sonic hadn't gotten involved.” Rouge said, reaching for something behind her back and standing. “But now...”

The bat smiled as she pulled out a walkie-talkie, and pressed the “talk” button. “Ooh Shadow!” She said to the other line, expecting an heavily sarcastic reply.

* * *

 Shadow was in the process of tearing the workshop apart looking for the fine silk bag of Sol Emeralds.

“ _Ooh Shadow!_ ” His radio communicator blurted out obnoxiously in Rouge's voice.

He let Rouge's voice be the ending point of his search for the Sol Emeralds, and the point where he accepts that the attacker was took them, Shadow sighed. He hoped that he could actually get on the good side of Blaze, at least.

“ _...Shadow?_ ”

Shadow answered the call.

“Oh thanks _a lot_ , Rouge. Thanks to your _escapade_ with the Sol Emeralds... You will _NEVER_. GUESS. WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED.”

* * *

 “... _And I hope you're happy._ ” Shadow said disappointed as Rouge lowered the radio, which was loud enough for her enemies to hear, with a shocked look on her face.

Blaze twitched. Then, she snorted like a bull, complete with the steam coming from her nose. But just before she could charge at Rouge with fiery fury, Sonic grabbed her shoulder.

“Blaze, let her go. We've got better things to be doing.” Sonic explained, trying to calm her down.

Understanding him, Blaze's raised shoulders slumped down, and she turned and began jogging back, pocketing the Sol Emerald. Sonic, Tails, and Amy followed. Amy turned and glared at Rouge as she left.

Gardon had finally caught his breath as Blaze passed him. As she went by, a grim look washed across his face. “Already?!” He complained, using his sword to push himself away from the tree, and behind the five others.

Rouge thought about trying to get to her comrades before her enemies did, but they probably don't want to be near her. In defeat, she walked off, back in the direction of Station Square, planning on resigning for the day, as it wasn't turning out to be her day to be involved in one of Sonic's adventures.

* * *

The group of six had made it back to the workshop. Cream was trying to calm Blaze's now highly active passive aggressive state. Sonic made it to the door first, rolling his eyes, thinking to himself. “Oh boy, here we go.” With a disappointed look on his face, Sonic opened the door, and stared at the current occupants of the shop.

Shadow's conversation with Omega was abruptly ended by the sound of the door opening. The black hedgehog turned to see the six walk in, all staring coldly at him.

“So Shadow, what were you doing in here?” Sonic interrogated.

Shadow pinched his brow. “I was sent here by G.U.N. with Rouge and Omega here, to try to keep up to pace with you, if not surpass you, in the terms of situational awareness. So me and Rouge decided to, literally...” Shadow pointed toward the tree, placed within perfect viewing point of the computer. “... look over your shoulder.”

“I should cut that down,” Tails noted to himself during Shadow's pause.

“When we couldn't find out exactly what we were dealing with from up there, I thought one of us had to go in and try to get a closer look at it. Since you _seemed_ to be speaking ill of me to the other dimension's royalty, and since Rouge was invited to your party and is a better diplomat than I am, I thought it would be a better idea to send her in than me.” Shadow continued. “I forgot about how easily she could get distracted by jewels. Especially the Chaos Emeralds. I didn't even take the Sol Emeralds into account. So after you all left, leaving the Sol Emeralds in plain sight, I tried hiding them from Rouge, in case she came back. Hardly a few seconds after I hid the Sol Emeralds, I looked up, and got knocked out with a metal chair. Omega was distracted with extracting the data and sending it to G.U.N. HQ, and while I was knocked out, the attacker must have found his sleep-mode switch. Probably left after grabbing the Sol Emeralds.”

Sonic wasn't as annoyed as he thought he would be. “At least you didn't take the rest for yourself.”

Shadow scowled. “Because G.U.N. has better things to do than ruin interdimensional relations in order to fit the paycheck of one operative.”

Shadow shook his head, and looked toward Blaze. “I apologize for my partner's stroke of greed. She usually contains herself.” Shadow stuck out his hand, hoping to get a truce, at least.

Blaze just stood there, ignoring it. “I'll accept the apology when we have my Emeralds back.”

Shadow took his hand back, nodding. “Alright.”

Sonic saw some opportunity. “Hey, come with us.” He ordered. “You're helping fix the problem she made.”

Shadow looked around, thinking about it. After a moment, he turned back. “Alright.”

“At this rate, things can only get worse...” Tails examined.

Sonic decided to throw in his two cents. “Oh boy, _here we go_.”

**Author's Note:**

> One of the main things that drove me to writes this part as the prologue was how everyone always assumes that Blaze is a pussy (pun possibly intended) and got how anti-social and scarred for life she was when she was introduced because kindergartener playground godfather Butch found her fire powers less than absolutely radical.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. More soon.


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